K-1 front man Sadaharu Taniagawa and rule director Nobuaki Kakuda announced that Badr Hari, after his actions in the World GP finals match against Remy Bonjasky at Yokohama Arena on the 6th, would receive punishment from the company. The punishment includes: no fight money (all of it taken away), loss of K-1 Heavyweight title, and loss of stature as 2nd place finisher in this year’s World GP tournament. Regarding a possible suspension of Hari, K-1 management indicated that a new rule may be implemented next year for possible suspension of fighters for DQ fouls in fights.

33 Responses to “K-1 gives punishment to Badr Hari”

I’ve always had a bit of a problem with punishments that involved taking money away from fighters. I can understand the reasoning and even agree with it in certain cases, but the trickle-down effects end up hurting innocent by-standers like the fighter’s family. Yellow cards in Pride were especially heinous in my eyes, since the fighters didn’t have to break the rules to get them.

Confiscating the entire purse is taking it way too far. That’s no longer a penalty, that’s taking food off the table. Take half of it away and leave the man something to live on.

The Hari family will somehow, some way survive without his pay from this event. I know, it sounds crazy. But for real, he went far beyond breaking the rules. It is a just punishment if you think about it — he ruined their biggest show of the year, their big tournament in the finals.

LOL, I’m baffled by the comments I’ve read around the Internet about this. It’s as if Hari foot stomped spectators or something. Everyone wants him punished with extreme consequences for what? He stomped Bonjasky who subsequently, and rightly so, milked it to grab up a 400,000 dollar payday.

Give me a break. Taking away his entire purse is a bit extreme, but whatever… if he isn’t suspended for half the year as was first rumored, I’m happy with this punishment. Hari can simply do some circusing on NYE or something to make the dough back.

The guy could have seriously or even permanently injured his opponent. Flagrantly punching and kicking an unsuspecting opponent on the ground, who is not expecting it because it is AGAINST THE RULES, is a very serious violation of the rules.

In reality, Badr Hari is lucky he is only losing his purse and being stripped of his belt. If there was an actual athletic commission or other governmental body regulating sports in Japan, he would be suspended for at least a year, rightfully so. He would lose alot more money in that situation, considering he will probably fight at least 6-10 times this year with K1.

This is a great move by K-1. It forces Badr Hari to pay a penalty. It also sends a strong message to the other fighters. Athletic Commission or not, dangerous and irresponsible behavior will be dealt with accordingly.

Actually I’m a bit surprised by the comments here. The K-1 World Grand Prix Final is not only the biggest show it is the ONE show that EVERY OTHER K-1 World Grand Prix event works toward. Also the fight was not only at the tournament it was THE FINAL!

So considered the circumstances this is mild judgement and it is also very much obvious that they wanted to avoid a suspension because Badr Hari is such a talented and ultra popular fighter.

You just have to compare it to the Akiyama who was not seen for 10 months in any K-1 event after oiling his body too much. An accusation that was not even made by K-1 but by Sakuraba.

All Tanikawa did this time was waiting for how the scandal is handled with in the Japanese media. And when it was not such a big deal this time he decided to announce this minor punishment.

I don’t know what the laws are like but is it legal to not pay an independent contractor (which I assume K-1 fighters are) like that? Even with the unsportsmanlike conduct? I would think that this would be in violation of labor laws.

Either way, I don’t feel sorry for Hari at all. He certainly doesn’t deserve the money. Though unless Hari is going to be suspended for a long time, I’m not quite sure if taking away his heavyweight belt is the best thing. In boxing, if he did something like this, would they strip him of a belt? Removing his finalist status from the GP makes no sense to me.

If you look at previous US athletic commission suspensions for similar cases though, I would say stripping Hari of the heavyweight belt is more than justified now that I think about it. Mike Kyle had his license revoked and wasn’t allowed to fight again for well over a year and a half after he assaulted his opponent after the referee restrained him. That’s similar to the Hari situation. Hari punched Remy twice on the ground and stomped him while the ref held him back and Kyle soccer kicked his opponent and continued to punch him while the ref was holding him back. Not sure if the CSAC took away his whole purse though. But that precedent is enough to justify stripping Hari’s belt and for giving him an a suspension for at least 1 year.

There was also the James Butler-Richard Grant situation in boxing where Butler sucker punched Grant after the fight and got convicted for assault. He didn’t box again for over 2 years. Not sure how much of that was a suspension and how much was him just taking time off.

Seriously, this is why I’ve been kind of sheepishly asking how often people follow K-1. Red Card = No Pay I always thought was a known thing.

K-1 isn’t UFC and isn’t operating under one of the US State Athletic Commissions, so why would they be doing stuff the way SACs in the US do? Hell, this isn’t MMA, either, it is kickboxing. I think people just aren’t comprehending how big of a deal this show is and how big of a deal Hari ruining it is. Everybody yaps about NYE shows, but they don’t build the entire year around NYE shows, they just toss together freak shows and hope to capture a big audience.

“There was also the James Butler-Richard Grant situation in boxing where Butler sucker punched Grant after the fight and got convicted for assault. He didn’t box again for over 2 years. Not sure how much of that was a suspension and how much was him just taking time off.”

James “The Harlem Hammer” Butler also went on to murder Max Kellerman’s brother with a hammer, in cold blood. He was sentenced to 30+ years if I’m not mistaken.

Conclusion: If Badr Hari is not severely punished, he could go on to murder one of Michael Schiavello’s siblings.

I don’t consider K-1 booking him on Dynamite a disgrace. Tanikawa said in a post WGP interview that Aerts wanted to rematch Hari on NYE but that would be dependant on his punishment. Since he’s not suspended give Aerts what he wants and give Hari a chance to put food on his table. Forfeiture of his belt and his #2 GP status and all pay for the GP (3 fights worth), which is what I think revoking his status as the #2 does gets the message across.

Ideally, he should be suspended in Japan for just as long as he would be if that happened in the United States, which I’d guess would be like 12 months. I realize that’s not how it works in Japan, but that doesn’t make it right.

“The Hari family will somehow, some way survive without his pay from this event. I know, it sounds crazy. But for real, he went far beyond breaking the rules. It is a just punishment if you think about it — he ruined their biggest show of the year, their big tournament in the finals.”

Remember, he also has trainers, management, etc that gets paid a portion of his purse. They didn’t do anything wrong, yet they’re being punished by association. Fine him, ban him, suspend him, that’s all fine and he deserves no less, but in my opinion removing the entire purse is unethical.

But I was thinking was…what was going through Badr Hari’s head when he fouled Bonjasky like he did? It’s not like Bob Sapp’s first few K-1 fights when he pulled shit like that (he was a n00b, but still not justifiable). I do agree they have to make an example of him and any other fighter who wants to pull shit like he did, but yeah taking his entire fight purse might be pushing it.

Then again, K-1 should be fined by whoever (I don’t care who, but ANYONE!) for the shit they tried to pull through the years. I still think the Akebono/Nobuaki Kakuda fight (Akebono’s only win) was a fix in some way.

“Remember, he also has trainers, management, etc that gets paid a portion of his purse. They didn’t do anything wrong, yet they’re being punished by association. Fine him, ban him, suspend him, that’s all fine and he deserves no less, but in my opinion removing the entire purse is unethical.\”

He\’ll still have to pay his trainers and management, again, thats Hari\’s problem.

That would be like me getting fired from my job for stealing, then saying I couldn\’t pay my bills because I was in prison for stealing…bills still need paying!

“Remember, he also has trainers, management, etc that gets paid a portion of his purse. They didn’t do anything wrong, yet they’re being punished by association. Fine him, ban him, suspend him, that’s all fine and he deserves no less, but in my opinion removing the entire purse is unethical.”

It isn’t K-1’s responsiblity to take care of Badr Hari’s friends and trainers. Badr is going to pay them out of his own pocket or with past winnings I guess. This isn’t unethical. It would be unethical if they had the yakuza beat him up with lead pipes after this and killed his family. They didn’t. They with held pay from a guy that has already made some good change off of the company.

He’ll be fine, they’ll be fine. He is fighting at their NYE show anyway.

[…] took them 11 days to do it, but K-1 has finally come up with a punishment for their heavyweight champion Badr Hari, who became possessed by spirits at the K-1 World GP Final on December 6th, and ended his match […]

[…] faced between the choice of doing the right thing morally and the right thing for their pockets? Fight Opinion has the answer: K-1 front man Sadaharu Taniagawa and rule director Nobuaki Kakuda announced that […]